Breakout
by CrystalRei
Summary: In Ciel's defense, she really couldn't have expected the portal. In Clint's defense, tranquilizers are not fun. But once they get stuck in the same cell they have the only advantage they need: each other. The bad guys don't really have an excuse. Written for the WA Locked Room challenge.
1. Chapter 1

Ciel opened her eyes slightly, and blinked a couple times. It was hard to tell at first what was in focus, as everything was approximately the same shade of gray. Cold seeped into her right side as her awareness continued to increase, although her arm seemed fine, so she pushed herself up and – ow; arm was numb from when she'd been laying on it. Okay then.

She winced from the pins and needles sensation but finished sitting up, only to immediately lean over towards her other side and the wall there. Head throbbing, she slowly blinked a few more times and finally began to take in the situation.

Starting with a man she had never seen before sitting against the opposite wall of the tiny room.

Her head throbbed again, and she curled up so she could rest it on her knees, groaning as she did so.

"If it makes you feel better, I was in the same position 'bout half an hour ago," the man offered. "Nasty tranqs they've got here."

Ciel didn't bother replying until she could look up without wanting to curl right back into a ball. Still leaning against the wall, she took him in. Not a reploid, she was pretty sure, but he looked like he was trained to fight. "Who are you?"

Something in his expression shifted but it was gone just as quickly. "Fellow prisoner, it seems." He held his hands out, showing they were empty, before rising to cross the room. "You were already here when I woke up, but you've got a needle mark too." He knelt in front of her and turned his head so she could see the reddened mark in the side of his neck, even in the dim light.

As she processed that her hand rose up behind her jaw, just below the edge of her helmet but right above her tac-suit, pressing and finding the soreness there. She took a slow breath, and looked again at the room. The floor was concrete, but everything else was metal. A large door took up most of one wall, looking completely solid aside from the barred window at the top and a panel at the bottom that _might_ open, but probably not from their side.

Another breath. She needed to stay calm. "Any idea where we are?"

"I got nothing," he said, looking for a moment at the window as if he could get any information from the wall beyond it. "They got me in New York but they could've kept me dosed up. We could be anywhere right now."

"…Where?" The instant that word left her mouth she knew it was the wrong thing to say.

His attention snapped back to her, his stare practically pinning her down. "Okay…" he said slowly, "I could buy not knowing me; I'm not in the same league as Stark or Cap. What I _don't_ buy is you never having heard of New York City, 'specially after that mess with the aliens."

Ciel pressed back against the wall. She opened her mouth, but after a moment closed it and stayed silent.

The man stared at her long enough to make her shiver, but abruptly his gaze dropped down. "Can I see your arm?"

She blinked at the sudden topic shift, but warily held out her hand. He took it, and ran his thumb over the back of her wrist, studying the material of her tac-suit. It was only this close that she could see the bruising on his hands and wrists, and some cuts further up on his arm. He had gone down fighting, which somehow didn't surprise her.

"Thinner than our stuff…" he muttered, "Doesn't feel like it either." He looked back up at her, letting the hand go. "What happened right before they stabbed you?"

"Um…" Ciel closed her eyes, trying to make sense of the few frantic moments prior to her world going dark. "I was… trying to get a fix on a weird energy signal, and then… it's all fuzzy but there was a really bright light. I thought it was a trans at first but… it doesn't… seem right. And then someone grabbed me." She reached for the needle mark again, but pulled her hand away when she realized what she was doing.

The man let his head fall back, muttering a few curses. "Damn, I was hoping for just a weird accent. I swear if we've got someone screwing around with portals again I'm gonna stick an arrow in that someone's spleen."

He moved to sit against the wall next to her. "Well, since we're stuck here for a while," He held up the hand nearest her. "I'm Clint."

She smiled, and reached across to take it. "Ciel."

-o0o-

Clint didn't say much more to her, aside from asking a few more questions that only highlighted their different experiences. Ciel wasn't a particularly suspicious person by nature, but it wasn't until the lingering effects of the tranquilizer cleared up and she could really start examining her memory that they were on the same page, at least as far as the current situation went.

Because really, she hadn't quite believed Clint about the portals until she remembered very specifically being in her lab analyzing the latest scans one moment and a few terrifying seconds later being dumped in front of a bunch of people who had _not_ been there last she checked. And she still wouldn't have believed another world until she got a look at the machine that had brought her there, which was most definitely _not_ a transerver and was even then still closing, and she caught a glimpse of what looked like space (outer space, not cyberspace) behind it.

In the end, that and the exchange in the cell made it abundantly clear that one of them was not on their usual planet, and it was most likely her. She still wasn't sure if she'd fully processed that.

Clint had listened intently, and then had proceeded to mutter something about "asgardians" and a "damn cube" and leave to feel out the walls of their cell. There was no point in pretending she had any idea what he was talking about, but he hadn't elaborated nor waited for a response from her.

It was just as well, considering she wasn't sure she could even begin to think of a line of questioning that made sense. In the meantime she did some poking at the walls herself, for what little good that did. While her memory did confirm Clint's seemingly-crazy theory, it didn't provide anything useful to the current situation.

Clint's expression became increasingly tense as he worked his way around the room. He obviously wasn't getting anywhere either, and if his reaction to the bolts in the doorframe was any indication, that was unlikely to change.

But, other world or not, what else was there to do other than figure out an escape route?

Once more she took a deep breath, and resolutely ignored the fear clawing in the back of her mind.

"Mission start," she murmured, almost mouthing it more than actually giving voice to the thought. Clint almost certainly thought she was a civilian and nothing more, but she'd organized the escape from Neo Arcadia and she could definitely organize her own prison break.

She had to.

First step: figure out what the heck they were working with. As far as she knew she and Clint were the only ones in the building. With everything involved in her capture there was no way of knowing how much time had passed. No one she knew would know where to look even though they _had_ to know she was missing by now (Alouette must be so worried…), and Clint hadn't mentioned backup.

Her knife was missing, as was the datapad she'd been holding, but… She reached up to her helmet and pulled down the visor, smiling a little as it came online.

It was something, at least.

"You got anything useful on that?" Clint asked her, and she flipped the visor back up to see him turn his full attention to her.

Her smile faded. "Not at the moment. What about you?"

"Well the guys on the outside need to fire their head of security," he said, gesturing to the empty corners in the ceiling. "No cameras." Then he tilted his head. "On the other hand, no tech here means Stark can't hack it to find us."

"Stark?"

"Yeah, one of my team. Six in total." He studied her with a measured look, not quite the same as their first conversation, but intense enough. This time Ciel met it.

Whatever Clint saw in her, it was enough to make him go on. "Cap, Stark, Thor, Bruce, Nat, and me. Stark's the resident hacker, but Natasha's good too." His brows suddenly furrowed. "Hopefully at least one of them got out. I'm pretty sure Thor did if nothing else, so someone should figure out I'm missing quick."

He looked at her and actually seemed to be turning the conversation over to her this time, but all she could do was shake her head. "As far as I know no one came through with me."

Clint grunted an acknowledgement and turned back to the bolts in the doorframe. When that evidently failed to pan out he jumped up, grasping the bars in the window and hauling himself up for a look.

"Anything?" Ciel asked as he dropped back down.

"Nope. Couple cameras but none close enough for a good visual in here. Have I mentioned these guys are idiots? Hall looks pretty blank otherwise. There's something next to the door, I think, but if it's part of a lock I can't tell what kind it is."

She sighed. "So not much to work with. Did they leave anything on you when they brought you in?"

"They took the obvious if that's what you're asking, including the comm." He fingered one of the zippers on his vest. "They got my knives too, but…"

She didn't see where his hand disappeared to behind his back, but she assumed hidden pocket when he came up with a small object between two fingers. "Arrowhead," he told her, tilting it back and forth for examination.

He sat down, placing the arrowhead next to him, and went through the rest of his outfit, delving behind straps, opening hidden pockets in the seams, and reaching into his boot at one point, until he came up with a total of four small, pointy objects. Smirking a little, he held up the last one, examining it. "They got my knives, but the bastards were _never_ going to find all of these." He picked up the other three devices in turn, manipulating them in his hand as he looked them over. "Explosive, corrosive, stun and another explosive," he murmured, and then sat back, satisfied. "I can work with that."

Then he turned to the smooth, steel wall next to the door. "Probably."

-o0o-

She was saving power on her visor for when – if – it became useful, so Ciel had no idea how long it had been before the panel at the bottom of the door slid open with a loud click and two brown packages came skittering into the room, followed by a pair of water bottles.

"Wow, MREs, really? I feel special," Clint drawled, standing up from where he was examining the wall and making his way to the door. "I don't suppose you could spring for some decent coffee?" he asked the unseen guard.

Ciel shivered a little at the reminder of some nice, hot coffee. The chill in the cell was only just this side of uncomfortable, but she'd never been able to retain heat well. She pulled one of the packages towards her and listened to the faint steps as they disappeared down the corridor outside.

Clint folded his arms and continued to stare at the bars until the guard's presence was well and truly gone, and then scowled.

"What?" she asked. Clint probably hadn't actually expected an answer from their captor, but…

"This is weird." Clint told her, retreating from the door and scooping up the other package for himself. He kicked one of the water bottles towards her as he sat down. "I don't know how this crap works on your world but if someone goes to the effort of drugging you to get you under their control, they want something from you. No one's come aside from that guy, and no one's talked to us. They haven't demanded anything of us, and if they're trying to break us first they're doing a half-assed job of it." He examined the MRE package. "Careful; they've opened these things at some point."

Ciel paused. "…And?"

Clint waited until he'd checked the smaller packets inside before responding. "Well the food itself hasn't been tampered with, so we're probably okay there. They just… took out the heater, the gum, the matches, the drink packet, and the spoon." He counted off the packets again. "And dessert. I take back what I said about them doing a bad job of breaking us."

Ciel laughed despite herself and took another look at the food in front of her. The packaging _claimed_ it was "ready-to-eat", but looking at the contents she wasn't entirely sure about that.

Well, it couldn't be any worse than what the Resistance had stolen for her those first few months. She reached for the crackers and peanut butter first, because those at least looked the same as usual, and went back to Clint's analysis of the situation. "Any idea who might have us?"

"You want a list?" Clint replied dryly, checking something on the bottle cap and twisting it open when he was satisfied. "Everyone on the team has enemies somewhere, and my usual line of work doesn't exactly leave people with a ton of friends. What about you?"

Ciel gave him a look. "You're the one with the portals. You think someone from my world found a way to get them too and sent me over?"

"You said you were tracking a signal, right? That portal may not have been the first one to open up."

She had to give him that, so she started working her way down the list. It didn't take all that long, because she could discount basically everyone on the basis of them being dead before she could even bring motivation into the equation: Copy X, Elpizo, the Guardians, most of the military, the Judges, Craft, Weil. Even those left in the government after Weil's takeover had been killed in Ragnarok's strike. In fact, the list of those in a leadership position effectively amounted to _her_ after Zero-

Her breath stuttered. She shook her head, more to clear the reminder than to indicate anything to Clint but it worked out anyway. "I can't think of anyone…"

If Clint noticed her mood shift, he didn't call her on it. They ate in silence for awhile, and Ciel forced herself to focus on the mission at hand.

"Well, I guess we're better off worrying about escape first," she finally said, poking at one of the remaining trays.

"True," Clint replied, picking the conversation back up easily.

Once more Ciel surveyed the room, as if that would get her any more information than they had already. The panel was too small for either of them to crawl through the opening, but she moved over to it anyway. Idly she ran her fingers along one side, where the panel itself was inset. Then again, more intently this time. Her brow furrowed as she watched her fingers move along the rough, uneven edges. "Hey."

Clint scooted over to her side, taking in the same features. "That doesn't look like it came with the door."

The corner of her mouth twitched. "I'll go with that."

They both looked up at the door, and then at the lack of cameras.

"I'm guessing this place wasn't intended to hold us." Ciel commented.

"First thing that's gone right all day." Clint replied.

-o0o-

"So what is it you do, exactly?" Clint asked, watching Ciel as she examined the wall nearest to the door through her visor. "Or do they just hand out suits like that to any scientist where you're from?"

"They don't, but it's not like this is military-grade. As for what I do…" Where did she even start with that? "I work with reploids–" She stopped at the confused expression on his face. "Androids?" she tried, and when that got a nod she moved on. "But my research moved to… energy systems, mostly." If 'reploid' didn't make sense there was no way she was going to be able to explain cyber-elves. "Five years ago I left the city and started a resistance faction against it, and I led it up until about a month ago. Then we were trying to rebuild the city, at least until I got dragged over here."

Clint's gaze was scrutinizing, but then shrugged, seemingly to himself more than anything, and glanced between her and the wall. "Remind me to introduce you to Stark when we get out of here."

"I'm… actually a little surprised you accepted that so easily."

She wasn't looking, but she could imagine the flat look Clint was probably leveling at her to match his tone. "I work with a guy that spent a couple decades frozen in a glacier, an alien prince with a magical hammer, and a scientist that turns into a giant green rage monster. You sound positively normal by comparison."

Ciel pulled away from her object of study just to stare at him for a moment. In the time she had spent looking into the theory he had come up with, the man had removed both of his boots along with a few more assorted pieces of his outfit, and was assembling the parts in a variety of ways to balance one of the arrowheads on it.

"What's the verdict on our target?"

She sighed. "This thing" – she tapped the hinge on her visor – "is not exactly designed to detect signals through a metal _wall_ , so… as far as I can tell there's power back there but for all I know it's going up to the lights."

Clint looked up at the recessed bulbs. "…Yeah-huh. _That's_ where the wiring goes."

Ciel rolled her eyes and made a frustrated noise. "Point being, I can't give you a better target other than somewhere in this area." She traced her finger around a fairly sizeable area directly to the left of the doorframe.

Clint frowned, but considered the target, and then walked over and pulled himself up on the barred window again. After another moment of examination he dropped back down and picked up his arrowhead of choice, as well as one of the straps he'd pulled off his outfit, and one of his boots. Ciel stepped away and watched in fascination as he poked at the base of the arrowhead for a bit, then slid it underneath the top fastening of the boot and reinforcing it with the strap.

He'd mentioned he had a way into the wall, but she hadn't expected him ramming the arrowhead into it, or for the 'corrosive' he'd mentioned off-hand to be that effective. A metallic snap sounded, followed by a hissing noise as the wall seemed to _melt_ away.

Ciel blinked at the hole left behind while Clint put on his other boot. "And you kept that thing _where_ , exactly?"

A huffed laugh accompanied Clint's reply. "It's not primed until it's mounted on a shaft. Or until you hit the switch that makes it think it is." He examined the boot that held the arrowhead and grimaced, presumably at the acid burns left behind, before using the other one to kick at the edges of the newly-formed hole and dislodge the weakened areas that hadn't quite detached.

They both paused, listening for the footsteps of a guard. There weren't any, and Ciel frowned at the implications of that, but moved forward to examine the hole. Clint evidently wasn't taking the observation any better, but joined her and peered inside.

After a moment she moved aside, letting him take the lead. The hole wasn't quite big enough to put his head through, but they could probably fit one arm each in together, or use one hand and still be able to look inside.

Of course, when she had tried checking it out earlier she found herself wishing that her visor had a flashlight attached. But if there was a battery in there, it was in a place she couldn't reach.

Clint slid his arm in and looked past it, fiddling with something on the inside. When that didn't get him what he wanted he turned his face away and shoved it in up to the shoulder, feeling around and pressing.

After a few minutes he withdrew his hand and grimaced. "I can't flip the lock without more leverage."

"You could try my shoe?" Ciel offered.

Clint looked down at it, and then shook his head. "No, I'd need something…" he cast a glance about the room, "…that we don't have right now."

Ciel sighed and once more looked at the hole. "Is that lock electronic?"

"I think so."

She slid the visor back down over her eyes and peered in. Reaching straight across, her fingers hit the edges of a box mounted on the other side of the wall. With Clint's help – along with the other non-explosive arrowhead as an impromptu screwdriver – they managed to pry it off, and tracings of the circuits inside lit up on the screen in front of her.

"Alright," she said, determined, "let me see what I can do."

-o0o-

She spent enough time to make her arms sore with one hand or the other inside the wall. Her headgear had a single cable in it, and she nearly had to strip the plug to get something she could use, but it was enough.

Granted, an actual _computer_ would be nice, but that wasn't going to happen.

They'd started quizzing each other about their respective worlds as a way to pass the time while they worked on their escape plan, and Clint had even started talking about his teammates. But then he got to Thor, and started talking about something called a 'Valkyrie', and Ciel had commented on the similarity to Harpuia, and now the man seemingly could not let it go.

"So, any mentions of a world tree in your legends?"

Ciel spared Clint a bemused glance and went back to her work. "The only legends I'm familiar with are the ones rather heavily based in fact," she told him, a particular pair of warriors springing to mind. "I can't think of any that involve trees."

"Hey, I _work_ with one of the guys that inspired Norse mythology." Clint retorted, before dropping his amused smirk and adopting a thoughtful look. "But, really? I would think Yggdrasil would be one of the first legends to cross worlds, considering."

Ciel blinked, having to scramble to regain her thought process regarding the information in front of her, because _seriously_? "Sanctum Yggdrasil was a structure in Neo Arcadia designed to contain a being called the Dark Elf," she said carefully. This was… either fascinating or really creepy. Or one heck of a coincidence. She was kind of hoping for that one.

"Not a bunch of interconnected wormholes? That arguably makes it weirder."

She didn't have a response to that.

Clint mused on that point for awhile, and then asked, "So, does the term 'Ragnarok' mean anything to you?"

Ciel stilled, involuntarily flashing back to that night. Watching the pieces fall-

"Hey, I'm sorry." Clint's hand on her shoulder jolted her out of her thoughts. "I didn't know-"

"It's okay," she told him, aiming for gentle but it came out more than a bit tired. "Um… orbital cannon?" she tried.

Clint blinked. "No, and that's an alarming mental image."

She had to laugh at the sheer truth in that statement.

"Of course," Clint mused, "the Vikings had it as 'the death of the gods', which I'm not sure is much better."

Going quiet again, she took a moment to consider that statement, and turned back to the lock. "Well that's ironic…"

-o0o-

Despite her assurances that _no really, it was okay_ , Clint had backed off almost completely on the comparisons between worlds. She had no idea what he was doing now; only that it was quiet, and it let her focus on her work.

As she delved further in she debated continuing trying to pull off the code – which for all she knew might be in a language she'd never seen before, even though the layout of the board itself looked somewhat familiar – or trying to manipulate it physically to get enough power to the locking mechanism. The problem with the latter, of course, being finding an adequate power source. Because for all of Clint's sarcasm about how obvious it was, the fact remained that the lighting system did not run wires down to her location.

Her visor was currently split-screen, a small section monitoring for any data input she happened to get while the rest continued to trace the circuit paths from the impulses the cord created. Between that and looking at the board behind it, this was _definitely_ going to give her a headache in the near future, but again: it wasn't like there were other options.

She moved the cord to the next chip. Thank goodness for static-proof gloves, because damaging the chip would more likely trap them here completely than actually do anything useful.

She startled when someone tugged at her arm, and whipped her gaze around. Clint; who was halfway to covering her mouth if she didn't keep quiet herself.

Her jaw snapped shut, and a beat later she let out a very quiet, very controlled breath.

A small noise drew her attention back to the lock. Her visor lit up with flashes of pathways she'd never noticed before. Giving Clint a pointed look, she leaned in to investigate.

There was a relay switch there, and… oh. Of _course_ they wired in the panel as a secondary door. Well, that was one less chip to check… so… mentally she started re-tracing the paths she knew.

The panel opened and something – more food? It had been longer than she thought – slid into the cell. Clint had taken up position at her side, an arrowhead in hand, trying and failing to engage the guard in conversation. Or at least trying to piss him off, given that he was mostly threatening to stick arrows in increasingly creative places.

Eventually the litany trailed off, though she wasn't quite sure when. There was a tap this time, and she looked just long enough to see Clint holding another MRE. "In a bit," she murmured, finding the relay switch that had been tripped earlier.

The chip next to it would have to be the one that set it off, which sends the code to the chip down there, but that was for the panel, so… Her finger traced the lines she saw on her visor and found yet another chip. That one might be the verification for the door itself; unless it was the one above it…

She lined up the cord and pressed a button on her visor with her other hand. The only signal she could generate was meant to translate into a diagnostic query for any reploid she worked on, but now it was nothing more than a generic electrical pulse that let her follow the path from chip to chip. It had yet to set off anything when she used the pins, but nothing had been easy so far, so why should it start now?

It couldn't _possibly_ take all that long… well okay, obviously it could, because it _did._ There weren't _that_ many chips – the board wasn't even that big – but every single one had at least a dozen different circuit lines coming off it, and following each one by eye was not as easy as it sounded, even with her visor's assistance.

Still, things fell into a rhythm, albeit a boring one. It didn't feel like she was making much progress, but she'd narrowed it down to two or three chips, so that had to count for something…

"So is 'working until you forget to eat' just a scientist thing everywhere, or what?"

She blinked, startled, and made sure she could locate the chips she had focused on before turning to Clint. "It hasn't been _that_ long…" She trailed off as she checked the clock in the corner of her visor which, even if it wasn't set to local time, still indicated that it had been over two hours since she last actually saw it.

Clint raised a brow and sent her a look as if he could read the same thing she had.

She let her head fall forward with a small sigh, and mutely held out her hand for the MRE. If she stared at the circuit board through her visor the entire time she ate, Clint didn't comment on it. Much.

"You're one of the better ones at least. I've heard stories about Thor's girlfriend, and Stark and Banner do it too."

"I also had an entire organization pretty much rotating watch to make sure I actually had enough food, sleep, and coffee," Ciel said fondly. "Now give me a minute; I think I have this."

Finishing the rest of the food before escaping was probably a good idea, so she impatiently shoved the last of… whatever it was supposed to be into her mouth and got back to work. There was only one chip left that was likely to be the verification one. If she could get the voltage into the circuit _past_ it…

A smile crossed her face, which only widened as a heavy click emanated from the door. Clint moved up next to her, grinning as well. A moment later the expression faded into grim determination and he shoved open the door.

"Idiots they may be, but I call guards in three… two… one…"

Footsteps sounded from around the corner.

"I never lose that bet." Clint said, smirking slightly as a couple guards, masked and clad in black, rounded the corner.

Ciel pressed back against the doorframe, feeling an odd sense of déjà vu. "Pretty sure that wasn't a bet."

"As far as you know!" Clint called back, sprinting to meet the guards long before they were ready. He slid under the haphazard punch of the first one and hooked an arm around their leg. Guard Number One went down hard, their head emitting a crack against the metal floor. Without pause Clint swept his leg out and caught the second one. Guard Number Two stumbled but didn't fall, and brought out a pistol to level at Clint's head.

Clint grabbed their wrist and neatly disarmed them, taking the pistol for himself and smashing the guard across the face with it. Number Two went down, but Number One was stumbling back upright. Without hesitating Clint leapt onto their back, his weight sending him to the floor again, and locked an arm around their throat until they went limp.

After a moment he pushed himself away, and after checking to make sure that both of them would in fact stay down this time, he looked up at her with a grin. "Shall we?" he asked, gesturing down the hallway the guards came from.

Ciel returned the smile and followed his lead.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

I wish I could have given Clint more 'screen time', but I've never written the Avengers before, and I didn't think I could do anything from that movie justice, sadly enough. So I stuck with Ciel to avoid messing up his character too badly. I really wanted to do alternating viewpoints, but I hope I struck a balance that was at least somewhat satisfactory.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You all gave me a lot of good food for thought on how to improve this story and how to go forward. And thanks for pointing out all my silly typos. :)

Anyway, now that this story is complete, I just want to mention that this, part 1, was meant to stand alone for the Locked Room challenge. Part 2 is just an addition that the idea for would not leave me alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Ciel didn't even realize Clint had swiped a keycard from the guards until he started trying it on every door with a lock they came across. The first one that opened merely led to another hallway, as did the next three, but eventually the doors the card worked on started leading into side rooms, not a single one of them empty.

Clint examined a piece of mangled tech in his hand for a moment, then with a sigh tossed it to her. "Recognize that?"

"Not a clue." Ciel wasn't even sure if she'd recognize it if it was _whole_.

Clint just shrugged in response. "Well, they can sweep the place later if they want. I don't see anythi-" He stopped, his gaze switching to directly over her shoulder.

She turned to follow it, and didn't even think. Just, one second she had a thing in her hand and the next she'd thrown it and hit the suddenly-there guard in the face.

By the time she'd actually processed the situation Clint was already on him, dropping him with a few well-placed blows. "Nice aim," he commented, flexing one hand from the last punch he'd thrown.

Ciel stuttered out something and after a moment ran a hand down her face. "That's one way of putting it."

A beat later and she let out a breathless, helpless giggle, but lead the way out once it was clear there was nothing in the room that helped them. Clint took point again, zigzagging across the hall as he swiped the key in lock after lock.

Six rooms later, they finally found something of interest: a curved metallic (or at least metal-looking) object thrown haphazardly against a wall of shelving. Ciel didn't recognize what it was, but Clint immediately picked it up, running his fingers over one of the arcs of the device as he studied it.

"That yours?" Ciel asked, rummaging through some miscellaneous electronics on a shelf nearby.

Clint nodded. "Yeah, it's my bow." He spun around, obviously searching for something else. Ciel watched for a minute, having to take a moment to place what he was talking about, before returning to her own search. If one of their weapons was here, then judging by the complete lack of organization the rest of their gear would probably be somewhere nearby.

Shelving units took up one full wall, and she moved to explore them while Clint poked around the rest of what appeared to be a storage room. It took a few long minutes, but eventually the search paid off.

"Ah-ha!" Ciel said, quietly but triumphantly, as she uncovered her datapad, promptly pulling it down to check and see if their captors had tried to do anything to it. She then jumped as Clint let out a yelp of surprise. The agent held out her knife at arm's length, somehow having not dropped it. Apparently he'd found the switch for it, as the metal blade had been covered in colored plasma.

Clint stared at the blade for a moment, then glanced between it and her outfit. Gingerly he handed it to her, point tipped away. "This one yours?"

(Yes it was pink. Ciel was aware of what he was probably thinking.)

"Yeah." Ciel nodded and took it from him, switching it off but not stowing it since they'd taken the sheath and its clasp too.

Clint continued to rummage through whatever he was looking at and came up with a few knives of his own, which quickly disappeared into his clothing.

He then turned to look elsewhere; and Ciel couldn't see him, but she could imagine widened eyes as he spoke. "Aw hell."

"What?" Naturally she immediately darted over to peek around his shoulder. A semi-flattened black tube laid against a pile of… well, Ciel had no idea. But what caught her attention was the disk next to the tube. Red and white, with a star surrounded by blue in the middle. A shield.

Clint hefted the object, glanced around, and then handed it to her. Ciel blinked as it was shoved into her hands, fumbling a bit until she got ahold of the straps on the back. It was… admittedly lighter than she'd expected, but still designed for someone way bigger than her. "Um…?"

He then grabbed the tube by a strap she hadn't noticed and flicked through the objects inside before slinging it over his head. "I need both hands and that will deflect damn near anything. I was hoping everyone else got out but apparently we aren't that lucky."

-o0o-

The hallway eventually ended. Clint paused warily at the door, peering through the small window before motioning to Ciel towards him. He handed over the key card before backing up a few steps, drawing an arrow and leveling it at the door with his bow.

As soon as she was sure he was settled, Ciel swiped the card. The lock beeped happily, a light in the corner coming on green like all the others they'd managed to open. She glanced back at Clint for a split second, then stared at the knob, taking a moment to plan her actions.

She braced herself, then grabbed the knob and shoved the door open, immediately dropping down behind the shield and out of Clint's line of fire.

Something zipped over her head, the arrow already buried into a guard's shoulder by the time she registered what it was. He dropped, shuddering uncontrollably. An instant later three extremely loud cracks made her flinch, and – possibly, she wasn't quite sure and couldn't hear herself – let out a yelp. It almost masked the pinging sound that followed – or maybe that was her ears. A small object bounced across her line of sight. Bullet? She hadn't felt any hit the shield…

Clint quickly stood – when had he dropped behind her? – and fired at the shooter before running past her. Ciel stopped thinking and just followed.

They emerged into a large, open, warehouse-like space. She followed Clint past a large metal box – shipping crate – and along the wall of the room.

A forearm brought her to a halt behind a shelving unit packed with machinery, and she glanced at Clint to see him motion to her to stay put. She nodded silently, and Clint pulled an arrow out and laid it across the bow. He drew it halfway back, paused, then darted around the corner of the shelving, pulled, and fired. The sound of the arrow hitting its mark, and a strangled cry, followed a moment later. Ciel's grip on her knife and datapad tightened.

Their path between crates and walls didn't leave much to take notice of beyond the concrete beneath her feet – not that there was much time to stand around anyway – but Ciel couldn't help but glance out into the room beyond as they passed the gaps. It was an open space; most of the containers appeared to be near the corner they were in. There was a second story – she could see a walkway halfway up the wall – and lots of scaffolding.

She couldn't get more than that before they arrived at another door. Clint swiped the keycard and they both looked to the light.

It came on red. Clint muttered a curse.

He then jammed his knife into the casing and pried off the front panel. "Have at it."

As he turned to cover their backs Ciel slipped in behind him and knelt just far enough to get eye-level with the lock. Someone's voice echoed through the open room but she resolutely ignored it as she extricated her arm from the shield's straps. The lock itself seemed slightly different from the one on their cell, and not just because she was looking at it from the front this time, but even at first glance she could tell it was going to be far easier to crack.

There was a thwip from Clint's bow and she winced involuntarily at the sound of something – some _one_ – hitting the floor. She didn't know for _sure_ how lethal Clint was making his shots, but she wasn't an idiot. They had guns.

She breathed through it, trying to focus completely on the chips and wires in front of her. She'd been in the field before – half the time involuntarily but the point stood – she'd been under attack, she'd _seen_ people get shot and die and nope, no that still wasn't making things easier.

Focus. Trust Clint. There wasn't really another choice.

The lock tried to zap her but at least it clicked open. She flicked her knife on and jammed it into the card reader for good measure before opening the door and scrambling inside, half-dragging the shield with her. Clint was right behind her and yanked it closed; and she didn't need a cue this time to take off running.

"Wish we had the time to jam it shut," Clint commented.

"Lock should reset, so that should be taken care of," she replied breathlessly.

Clint grinned. "Knew I liked you for a reason."

The hallway had just as many doors as the previous one, but after checking in three windows and swiping twice, neither one working, Clint just shrugged in exasperation and stopped trying.

"Worth a shot," he muttered, heading for a corner. A guard came around the other side, gun drawn. Clint brought his bow down on his wrist with a crack before he could fire. The gun clattered to the floor and Clint slid around the guard, ramming the bow end-first into his stomach. A last blow to the head knocked him out, and Clint picked up the gun before liberating another keycard and yet another knife from his opponent.

"Wonder how long it'll take them to catch on?" he wondered idly, scanning the corridor after he'd quickly checked the gun. His eyes then narrowed as he noticed something further down. Ciel noticed it too, taking the lead this time.

The door they found looked less like the average entryway and more something designed for far heavier duty. The lock, Ciel suspected, was upgraded too.

She ran her fingers over the casing, not finding even the slightest bit of purchase; no seams. She flicked her knife on, but hesitated. "I don't know if I can get inside without damaging anything important."

Clint laid a hand on her arm. "I've got a better idea."

"Alright." She stepped aside, watching as Clint pulled out one of the stray arrowheads he'd had when they were captured and began fiddling with it. After a moment's thought she realized she had a pretty good idea of where this was going.

"Should I get the door across the hall open?"

Clint nodded and she took the keycard from his fingers as he held it up, immediately making the short trip to the much more normal-looking door and swiping the lock open.

"Get under cover if you can find it," Clint instructed her.

"Right." She scouted the back wall for something that looked relatively sturdy. She also pulled the shield off her arm again and offered it over.

"Thanks," Clint told her, taking it and sliding it into place.

Twenty seconds and one explosion later, they were able to force the door open.

Clint took one look inside the room, before the smoke had even fully cleared, and stalked in with a glare. As soon as Ciel followed him, she could see why.

On one side of the room was a tall, muscled man bound by thick cuffs and chains, sitting behind clear walls. On the other side was a matching cell, this one containing a smaller man in ragged clothing, apparently unconscious but just as bound.

Clint's expression tightened as he took in the second man, but his focus quickly turned back to the first. "Hey Cap," he said, tapping on the wall.

The man stirred, unfocused eyes looking up at them. "Hawkeye…?"

Clint nodded sharply, crouching down to meet Cap at eye-level. "Yeah. Here to get you out."

Ciel crouched down next to him. "Are you okay?"

Cap blinked at her, but he seemed to be waking up pretty quickly. He glanced to Clint, and Ciel felt him shift next to her – nodding, she hoped; telling him it was alright.

"I'm okay," Cap told them. "They kept trying to drug me but it seems like they never could get a high enough dose together."

"Bruce?" Clint then asked, concern overriding some of the professionalism in his tone.

Cap looked past them and motioned with his head. Clint stood up and followed his gaze… and then promptly let out a string of muttered curses.

Ciel looked over as well, seeing a broken arrow on a table next to Bruce's cell.

"Stark is never going to let me hear the end of it," Clint growled.

"You know Bruce insisted," Cap replied. "We all knew the risk."

Ciel opened her mouth to ask for an explanation, but quickly shut it. Now was not the time. Deciding to leave them to their conversation, Ciel moved to examine the structure of the cell itself. Unlike before, there wasn't a visible lock; and while the walls were clear panels with metal frames, there was no visible way to open any of them. And she really doubted they were something as simple as glass.

There had to be _some_ reasonable way of getting inside, but there were a lot of 'if's, 'maybe's, and time limits on whether it was feasible.

There were, however, a few computer terminals clustered on a desk near Cap's cell. One of the screens flickered as she found a power button. This… This had the potential of going a lot quicker and with less chance of doing something detrimental she couldn't fix.

But… "Hey Clint," she called, dropping her knife and kicking it over to him, "see if you can find a way to force it open. I'll try here." No sense in not hedging their bets. She found a chair and pulled it up with one foot as she watched the boot sequence finish.

Login screen. Well, it wasn't like she didn't have experience getting past those.

Although… She pulled out her datapad. It was a lot easier when she had another computer she could already do what she wanted with. She flicked open one of the compartments in the case and unwound a cord, idly listening to Clint talking with his teammate as he worked.

"I feel like I should be insulted here, Cap. They threw _us_ in a glorified storage room."

"More like underestimated?"

"That too."

Ciel wasn't quite sure she agreed, but Clint was also a lot more dangerous than she was, and so she shook her head in amusement. She knelt down to access the terminal itself, all set to pry it open and get at the actual drive-

Was that a USB port?

She spent far too long quietly giggling at the concept of those being _actually_ 'universal', even after she plugged her datapad in and got to work.

In the background she could hear Cap asking, "Who is she?"

"Long story. It involves portals and crap so I'm not even sure how much I can explain. But she's on our side; she's definitely no Hammer." He snorted. "Helluva lot more competent for one."

"Somehow I don't get the impression that's a high standard," she commented, tweaking her raw feed program until it actually worked and restarting the computer. Hopefully it wouldn't be too long until she could get inside the system; there was a lot of unfamiliar code.

Unfamiliar, but understandable.

One of the others said something, but she didn't really pay attention. The login screen appeared on the terminal again while she scrolled through the results on her datapad. If she could force a command line…

There; admin account. Skip the details, run the login code.

She remembered to tell Clint "I got in," so that he didn't break something important, but all her attention focused on navigating the computer in front of her. Directory searches were _so_ much easier than trying chip pins, even with unclear file names…

Huh. Files names aside it _did_ look like there was a lot of useful things she could get at from here. They couldn't afford to stay too long, but if she could get _her_ computer on the network, that would be really nice.

First thing to do, though, was get Clint's teammates out of confinement. It only took a few minutes before she located the controls for the cells. A loud click signaled the lock disengaging and one of the wall panels detached from the others enough for Clint to grab hold and push it aside.

As he cut through Cap's chains with her knife she quickly undid the lock on Bruce's cell. It was only then that she hear the voices outside.

"I think they caught on," she said quietly, voice wavering just a little bit.

"Yeah, I heard them too," Clint replied, just as quietly, but with a lot more tension. Ciel suddenly found herself desperately wishing for Faucon, or Colbor, or anyone else to guard them.

She glanced at him, still working away on the chains but almost having Cap free, and nodded to herself, returning to the computer. Even if she could read the code from this world that didn't mean her computer knew how to run it properly; and she had no time to fix it now.

She settled for transferring any important-looking files and hoping she could get them onto something that would work later, and shoved her chair back, crossing the room to open Bruce's cell.

The panel bit into her fingers and the door screeched as she pulled, but it opened. Clint was right behind her as she entered, which she figured out right about the time he grabbed her shoulder and held her back.

"Let me," he ordered, with no room for argument. Ciel knew better than to try in the middle of a mission – since that's basically what this was – and stepped aside.

Cap walked up next to her, the shield over his arm, and she looked up at him. Wow, he was taller than she thought.

"Think the rest of the team will be here soon?" he asked.

Clint had been murmuring something to Bruce as he worked, but looked up to reply with a smirk. "I say we go see if we can kick these guys' asses before they beat us to it."

-o0o-

Cap – Steve, he'd introduced himself as Steve – carried a disoriented and still barely-awake Bruce over his shoulder as Clint led the way back towards the warehouse-room. Well, tried to. The six or so guards that met them halfway to the corner made it somewhat difficult.

Steve was hindered by carrying his teammate and Clint was stuck with arrows and the stolen pistol considering the number of gunshots ringing off the walls and Steve's shield. He'd taken down three of them so far, but even she could see he was having trouble lining up a shot in the narrow hallway and from behind Steve.

Ciel flinched yet again – because even if she wasn't hit _ow_ those were loud – but with the other two covering her she was able to locate a stairwell. At least, she hoped it was a stairwell. She was pretty sure that was a sign for it.

"This way!" she shouted, and bolted for it before they were pinned from the other side. A sigh of relief escaped her when she turned out to be right, and she glanced back just long enough to see the others behind her before she started climbing.

One of the guards shouted curses at them as they followed. Clint promptly grabbed the other explosive arrowhead from his suit and launched it at the floor in front of them.

The stairway rattled under Ciel's feet and she latched onto the handrail. Someone – Clint, apparently – grabbed her arm as he passed and she stumbled behind him for a bit to find her balance. Another sound, this one more of a distant rumble, echoed through the stairwell as they approached the second floor.

Clint grinned. "Thor's here," he announced as he swung the door open. It was a matter of a few mostly-empty hallways between them and their original destination. Ciel couldn't help an almost sympathetic cringe when Steve bashed a guard over the head with his shield, knocking him out cold while barely breaking stride. A minute later Clint dove down and somersaulted under another's firing line, slamming a fist into their gut on the way up and then putting them into the floor to finish the job.

There was a third down the hall and he pulled his bow, drawing back just as a red blur whizzed by him and clocked the guy in the head, sending him down.

"Kill-stealer!" Clint called, practically pouting as he let the arrow down and approached the last door.

Steve shrugged helplessly as he braced his shield to get it back on one-handed. "I think that was a reference and I'm just gonna pretend I understood it," he commented to Ciel, almost as an aside as he followed his teammate.

Ciel smiled as she kept pace. "If it makes you feel better you won't be alone."

-o0o-

Activity had noticeably picked up since she and Clint were last in the warehouse-room. The machinery seemed to be quiet but voices echoed throughout the space, punctuated by sharp spikes in volume that weren't always distinguishable. The intent was clear enough, though.

Clint dropped to a crouch at the guardrail of the walkway they had emerged on, surveying the floor below. "Place is packed," he said as Steve and Ciel joined him. "I'm betting there's at least one exit from this room, probably on the other side and not counting the giant hangar door over there." He motioned off to their right, where indeed the wall changed to a paneling that indicated just that.

Bruce let out a small moan from where Steve still had him over his shoulder, and the man quickly but gently lowered him to the floor and braced him against one of the rail posts.

"Bruce," Steve said quietly, "are you with me, soldier? Clint made a new friend and got us out. The team is almost here. Stay with us, okay?"

"Oth'r guy's gonna be piss'd when he gets goin'," Bruce slurred, gaze unfocused but roaming over the other three. When it landed on Ciel he asked, "Who're you?"

"My name's Ciel," she replied immediately, mind racing to figure out what would help most. "Clint and I were put in the same room when we were captured. I'm here to help as much as I can."

There was a click from Clint's bow against the floor as he set it up, drawing an arrow back in a way Ciel was amazed worked from the way he was still kneeling.

"And on that note," the archer said with forced lightness, "it would be _helpful_ if we got moving, 'cause we just got spotted again." Sure enough, there was another spike in volume from below, this one a lot more frantic.

"How have they not come after us in force yet?" Steve wondered, gingerly pulling Bruce back up.

"My guess? Their security system is as crap everywhere as it was in our cell," Clint replied, and released the arrow. Ciel could practically see the resulting shockwave. She definitely saw no less than four guards get knocked to the floor.

She pulled herself upright with the guardrail and bolted after Steve, only to stop short as a group of guards emerged onto the walkway. She turned around, only to see Clint leveling his stolen gun at another group pouring through the doorway they had just left.

"I'd like to remind you that you're the one who brought it up, Cap!" Clint called back to them, and started firing.

Someone stumbled into her and she squeaked in surprise, but she was able to turn just far enough to see Bruce clinging to her for balance. A few steps back brought them to the wall of the compound and she helped lower him down, watching Steve go to work.

The shield proved to be an advantage in the exchange of blows, causing the initial wave of guards to stumble and fall back onto their companions. The walkway wasn't too narrow, but it was enough for Steve to reach across the entire width fairly easily. A fact highlighted when Steve grabbed the rail and slammed both feet into the nearest guard, sending him flying back along with most of the group behind him. The first one to recover drew his gun and aimed, only for Steve to grab his extended arm and actually _throw_ him off the walkway to the concrete floor below.

Ciel really should be focusing on… something. Anything. But there was nowhere to go, nothing to break into, and she'd be more of a hindrance than a help even if she _did_ have a gun.

Speaking of which, how was Clint?

She turned to look back where they'd come from, and it cost her.

A blow to the back of her head made her pitch forward – at least she had her helmet; it would have hurt a lot more if she didn't – and catch herself on her hands, the metal grating biting into her palms. Her belongings clattered next to her even as she scrambled out of the way of the next blow she was sure was coming.

A gunshot rang out and ricocheted off the walkway. Ciel rolled to face up towards her attacker and swung the knife, the blade lighting up shortly before it seared into the arm reaching down towards her. The man howled in pain and she took the opportunity to slam her foot into his kneecap.

He stumbled, and almost looked like he was going to recover before he let out a shout and dropped, shaking, the fourth loose arrowhead lodged in the base of his neck. Behind him, Clint dusted his hands off in satisfaction.

"You okay?"

"My ears are still ringing," she admitted, "but I'm fine otherwise."

He nodded sharply and took off running towards Steve, leaping onto the rail as he reached him and using it to launch himself to a piece of scaffolding. He swung around, gunfire pinging off the metal as he passed behind it. A moment later an arrow shot through a gap and dropped someone in the melee. By the time Steve had knocked out two more Clint had dropped onto the other side and – judging by the cries of pain – driven two more arrows into their opponents.

With the guards now divided Steve made quick work of his side, blocking punches, diverting weapons, and retaliating with sharp blows of his own.

Eventually he cleared a path by the wall, Clint working with him to keep the few guards still standing pinned against the rails.

"Go on!" Steve called to them, knocking another guard over the side.

Ciel glanced at Bruce, who adjusted his glasses and stumbled upright, giving her the nod that he could make it on his own.

There was a screech of metal on the far side of the room, but Ciel didn't pay attention to what was causing it. There were the stairs the guards had come from, leading down to the floor below, but there was also a lone door near the corner. On a hunch, she went for the latter. Bruce followed without question.

A glance inside the window confirmed the guess that had begun to form: lots of computers; possibly a security hub. Lots of people too, but unarmored and, hopefully, unarmed.

The door was locked, of course. Ciel pulled out the stolen keycard from beneath her datapad, considering, and looked up to check on the other two. Seemed like Steve and Clint had finished dealing with their attackers and were already moving to join them. Backup acquired, she swiped the card. The lock light came on red.

"I guess this _would_ the first place they manage to lock down." Bruce said wryly.

Ciel blinked, her brain shifting for a moment to relief that he sounded much more aware, then processed what he said and smiled. "Fair point." She handed the keycard over to Bruce – one less thing to carry – and shifted her grip on her knife. With a bit of effort she wedged her knife between the door and the frame, flicked it on, and pulled it down. Bruce looked bemused, but opened the door and followed her in.

The workers in the room looked up as one, eyes widening at the intrusion. Ciel glanced around nervously, but stood her ground. None of them looked like they were going for weapons, at least.

Bruce took off his glasses momentarily, idly cleaning them with the edge of his shirt. "Out of curiosity, did your bosses ever mention to you who they were holding? Because being captured tends to make me angry, and that never goes well for anyone."

The workers all eyed each other, shuffling and clearly on edge.

"Or," Clint commented, flipping a couple knives in his hands, "you can piss off the guy with perfect aim that has live steel in his hand, or even the super soldier who, last I checked, just dropped about a dozen guys that were actually _trained_ to put up a fight."

Ciel stepped to the side as the workers all clustered together. Clint and Steve moved in past her and ushered them out.

"Good, that leaves the computers working to do your… thing." Clint waved at the room at large. An explosion went off somewhere in the larger room, followed by sounds Ciel found more similar to plasma bullets than anything. Clint was unfazed. "I'm gonna go see if the team brought extra comms."

With that he and Steve turned as one and vaulted over the guardrail, straight into the battle starting up below. Ciel couldn't stop herself from running to the door, a bolt of fear shooting through her.

But as soon as it got through her head that there wasn't any point in freaking out now – seeing the two of them in her sight for a moment helped – she walked back inside and found a seat at the nearest computer. "It's not as bad as the particle cannon…" she murmured. "Nothing is as bad as the particle cannon…"

Bruce had that bemused expression again. "Do I want to know?"

Ciel resisted the urge to bury her face in her hand. "No, probably not."

-o0o-

The gunshots were seriously starting to hurt her ears. One advantage to plasma bullets: they're quieter.

Her login trick had her back on the compound's system, this one linked – as she thought – to the security. Clint had darted back in not long after he and Steve had disappeared, saying that the rest of the team wanted to sweep the compound and needed the security disabled to get in effectively. So that was left to her as he just as quickly rejoined the firefight.

"Done yet?" He called back to her, loosing another arrow as he stopped on the walkway near the door.

"Two minutes!" she returned, not even looking up from her typing. Bruce had retreated to a far corner and appeared to be doing some work of his own, deliberately facing away. Clint hadn't said anything, so she let him be. But even she knew they couldn't stay here. They needed to be able to keep moving and finding new cover if they ever wanted to get out.

Hence her current goal of doing what she couldn't in the room Steve and Bruce had been held in, and getting her datapad to the network itself.

"Don't suppose you could make it one? Half?"

She just shook her head. It was already way shorter than she expected simply because the computer already supported a remote operating feature.

As she made the final touches, she heard Clint's voice again. If he was trying to talk to her, it wasn't working, but what if...

The message _Remote desktop established_ flashed on her screen and she unplugged the USB, confirming that her commands to the datapad continued to mirror those on the terminal. With that set she ducked out into the walkway to join Clint. "So I take it you made contact?"

"Uh-huh." Clint smiled and briefly tapped his ear. "That headgear of yours have a radio on it?" When she nodded he drew another arrow and turned back out to the main room of the warehouse. "Iron Man, scan for a new signal and link her in."

Ciel darted back inside the security room and pulled down her visor, fiddling with her own comm, catching Bruce's attention as she did so. The wall wasn't really cover except from sight, but hopefully it would be enough until Clint got enough of an opening to move them.

A burst of static made her wince but it vanished quickly and a male voice came over the line. "Alright Merida I think I've got it."

"Are you referring to me or him?" Ciel asked, smiling despite everything. With Clint's particular brand of snark, somehow it didn't surprise her that the rest of his team would have their own offbeat sense of humor.

"Hey, Hawkeye's sidekick! I'm running short on hacker names at the moment-"

"Tony." Steve's voice was authoritative, but carried a tone of resignation.

'Tony' seemed to be continuing, but Clint talked over them both. "Tasha, you have three coming in at two-o-clock."

"Noted," a female voice replied shortly, followed by faint screams from what Ciel assumed were the guards converging on her. "You know, it would've really helped if you hadn't dropped your comm in the damn snow in the first place," she groused. " _Something_ so we could find you before the place went on high alert."

Some of the gunshots were getting closer, but soon were exchanged for the smacks and thuds of hand to hand combat. Ciel crept forward again, knife at ready and still under Clint's cover. Below the catwalk she saw a flash of blazing red hair as its owner worked through one guard after another.

Clint grinned as he loosed two more arrows, but the brief expression faded as he argued back. "That was not my fault this time!"

"You said that in Cairo too."

"I counter with Nairobi."

"Belgrade."

"Lublin." Clint glanced at Ciel and jerked his head and started running down the walkway, firing as he went.

"Sundsvall."

"Nakano."

"Budapest."

"You cannot possibly pin that clusterfuck on me!" Clint shouted, making a running leap to the scaffolding again and swinging himself up, narrowly avoiding a flying projectile of some sort. Ciel slowed to a stop at the jump point, followed him with her gaze for a moment, and then glanced back to check that Bruce was following before she darted down the stairs they'd passed earlier.

She stopped behind a support beam, Bruce breathing slowly beside her as they hid, waiting out the newest flurry of fire. Above them Clint climbed his way into the rafters, running from perch to perch and firing when he wasn't being shot at.

Ciel tore her gaze away from that to focus on her companion. "Are you okay?" she asked, almost wishing he'd stayed under from the tranq. He looked more than a little distressed.

Before he could answer, the voice from before – 'Tasha' – cut in. "Dr. Banner." Ciel jumped, startled at the woman suddenly behind her, and whirled around to face her.

Bruce looked up much more calmly. "I'm alright," he told them. "The…" he shot a glance at Ciel, "The Other Guy doesn't like guns."

"I know," Tasha said gently. Then she jerked her thumb out at the remainder of the room. "Want to do something about it?"

He looked back at Ciel, and unidentifiable expression on his face.

"I'll be fine," she told him, tapping her ear where the comm was. "The others will be able to help if something happens, right?"

She had no idea if that was what he was concerned about, but his expression changed to one of resignation and he shrugged, sighing. "I suppose it'll happen one way or another, in a firefight like this." The look this time was definitely pleading. "Try not to, well… freak out."

"I won't," she replied immediately. Maybe not the smartest promise to blindly make, but what else could she do?

Bruce nodded, took off his glasses and handed them to her along with the keycard. With one final, deep breath, he darted around the support beam. Ciel didn't quite see what happened next, but when a deafening roar echoed throughout the room she just _had_ to see.

Right. Giant green rage monster. Clint did say something about that didn't he?

She took one look and turned to Tasha for an explanation. The woman just stared back at her, as if looking for a reaction.

She wasn't quite sure what that was at the moment, so she said the first thing that came to mind. "I'm going to assume that's kinda normal around here."

The change in expression was slight, but Tasha looked approving as she tapped her comm. "Barton, get down here and help me escort your new friend."

-o0o-

Between Clint and Natasha (Nat, Tasha, Natasha, eventually she'd put all these names together with what Clint told her), Ciel felt just secure enough to start sifting through the security layout whenever they got under cover. Clint took down most opponents with his bow and Natasha efficiently knocked out whatever slipped past him.

They led her on a path towards the hangar door, stopping behind whatever cover they could manage until the thick of the fighting moved elsewhere for a bit.

"Get down!"

Ciel dove behind some machinery at Clint's order as he and Natasha moved to deal with the ambush. Electricity sparked from Natasha's hands as she grabbed one attacker's arm and drove her fist into his neck, keeping it there until he fell. Beside her Clint rolled underneath a knife swipe and came up swinging, causing his opponent to stumble but not fall. The guard went in for a stab and he sprang backwards, catching them on the chin with a kick as he flipped over.

Ciel looked away as another fell, searching for anything to put her in a better position than she was now. Her gaze landed on a small metal part that had clearly broken off at some point. In a flash of inspiration she grabbed it and slung it across the floor. It slid between her allies and by sheer luck a guard's food landed on it and skidded. The man pitched forward, which Natasha mercilessly capitalized on.

The two had whittled down their opponents to two when a dark blur shot out of nowhere and slammed them out of Ciel's view before she could process it.

Her gaze snapped to follow the apparent path and caught a small hammer making an improbable return journey as if pulled by an invisible electromagnet.

Right, didn't Clint say something about a magic hammer too?

She shook the thought off and followed her protectors.

The group took up position next to a panel at the edge of the hangar door. It didn't look like the usual locks – Ciel was pretty sure there was a wireless component involved – but she managed to open it up and started rearranging things inside. In the meantime, Natasha had pulled out guns from somewhere and joined Clint in keeping everyone else at bay.

"You know, something I just thought of…" Clint said, firing off another arrow.

Natasha didn't reply, so Ciel did. "What?"

"Well, there were only two cells where we found Cap and Bruce. If they put _you_ in our glorified storage room, where did they put whatever _else_ they got from your world?"

Just then an explosion echoed distantly from elsewhere in the compound.

Several guards paused and put their hands to their ears in the middle of the firefight. Clint and Natasha glanced at each other, obviously unsure. It wasn't one of them. Out of sheer curiosity she messed with her comm until she found the frequency they were using.

"What do you _mean_ 'it woke up'? It had been blasted to hell and back and now you're telling me it has a damn _lightsaber-_ "

Ciel switched the channel back and let her head fall against the panel, laughing silently.

It was the longest shot in the world, but she couldn't help but hope.

-o0o-

Getting the door open was easier than ever by this point. Ciel shoved the panel roughly back how she'd found it and rose to her feet as the massive door creaked and slid upward, gradually letting bright sunlight flood the room. The team, by unspoken agreement, converged on their position. Even Bruce – still in his green form – joined them, albeit focusing mostly on scaring off anyone else who approached.

"Awesome; go team." A voice Ciel recognized as Tony's emanated from a red and gold suit, and the faceplate flipped up to reveal the human inside. "Now what, wait for SHIELD to pick us up?"

"Not yet," Steve countered, and turned to Clint. "You said something about portals earlier."

Tony glanced blankly between Ciel and Clint for a moment, and then let out a string of curses.

"Yeah that was pretty much Clint's reaction too," Ciel told him sheepishly, before turning back to Steve. "There's a good chance I'm not the only one who was brought over." Another explosion, this one closer than before, only emphasized her point, and she gestured in its general direction. "Clint said you wanted to sweep the place anyway. I have the layout, and I can get the locks open if I can get a few minutes of not being shot at. There's a level underneath this one with a lot of secure rooms. I think that's where they have the machine that brought me over." She flipped the datapad over to show them the map. "I can guide you down there if you want. There are two secure rooms on this floor. One is the one they had you and Bruce in. Considering where the other one is, I think it's for my world."

Combat was one thing, but this? This she could do.

She turned to Clint. "I'd like to get your help finding anyone else they brought over. I think I'll be able to talk to them." She zoomed in on the secure rooms on her datapad. "You said Stark's the hacker." She turned to Tony. "I'm guessing that's you? I would appreciate it if you kept whatever they're using for the portals intact; I'd like to go home eventually." She took a deep breath. "But I think our goal for now is to make sure they can't do this again."

Tony was outright smirking, but Steve and the last team member – Thor presumably – merely twitched their mouths into smiles.

"I believe it would be wise to follow the lady," the latter stated.

"I'd agree with that," Natasha replied, sounding amused.

Ciel took another breath, calming herself. The last however-long had been one long adrenaline rush, but the end was in sight. It wasn't the Resistance here, but she'd take what she could get for now. She swayed on her feet a little but just as quickly shook her head to clear it, waving off Steve as he reached towards her. "I'm okay."

She steadied herself, and noticed that the sounds of combat had died down. Relief flooded her, and she hoped – well no, her heart said she _knew_ – that it was going to be okay.

Bruce wandered outside to continue terrorizing the guards, and Thor followed to, in Tony's words, 'keep an eye on him' and make sure he didn't smash anything important. Tony himself went with Steve, heading for the nearest stairwell at her direction, searching for the floor below. Clint and Natasha accompanied her as stepped outside and turned the corner, surveying the wall on the other side of the battleground.

A cloud of dust was even then still drifting away from where one corner of the building had apparently collapsed. Or more likely was blown apart, considering the distance some of the rubble had managed.

Without thinking Ciel picked up the pace, half-running down the length of the building. The more she saw, the more her hopes rose. Clint's team would get them out of here; she'd find a way to fix that machine as soon as she got her hands on it if she had to; and as she finally came across a familiar face, she smiled in sheer relief.

Everything was going to be okay.

* * *

 **Author's** **Notes:** Well, that came out longer than I expected. Still not sure I did it justice, but several elements of this part were kicking around in my head since before I finished part 1, so I hope I managed well enough! Fight scenes are ridiculously hard to write from a civilian's perspective. Also the ending; I didn't want to get into all the implications of, well, what I implied if you Mega Man fans noticed XD - that's not the point of the story - but I just can not resist whenever I get the chance. I wanted more a sense of looking to the future for this ending, but I did want it to be an ending; much like part 1 now that I think about it. That's a hard line to walk.

This probably still needs some tweaking, but I'm just so excited it's done I'm gonna upload it anyway. *sweatdrop* I knew I had a few people looking forward to this. I still think part 1 is better, but hopefully I didn't disappoint too much!


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